My Dry Dives and Other Adventures with DCS, PFO and Migraine with Aura

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

OMG!!! I'm so busted. Yes, I was getting impossible to live with. Seriously. I ended up going 86 ft. briefly at just under 2 months. I didn't stay that deep too long. I really am taking it easy. All is well and Angie is in her happy place because she is diving. I keep forgetting that everbody reads the internet. :-(

I don't know, Angie. There's a lot of "relative" terms there. That deep? too long? taking it easy? :D I'm going to have to promise to be a "good patient" to be seen.

I'm just glad you're feeling better and back in the water. Keep on "taking it easy" for awhile, will ya? And now, let's get me "fixed" too!
 
Angie is in her happy place because she is diving.
Hey, I've heard that happy divers heal faster. :wink:

And now, let's get me "fixed" too!
Hopefully it's going to be the ticket for you, too! It certainly cleared up all my issues. Wonder how many more of our friends have PFOs ... Hmmmmm ...

It's certainly nice knowing a great doctor!
 
I don't know, Angie. There's a lot of "relative" terms there. That deep? too long? taking it easy? :D I'm going to have to promise to be a "good patient" to be seen.

I'm just glad you're feeling better and back in the water. Keep on "taking it easy" for awhile, will ya? And now, let's get me "fixed" too!

Sorry, I won't be able to give any pointers about being a good patient. I'm probably one of the lousiest patients he's ever seen. I really tried hard, but I'm just such a beginner at the whole doctor thing. I don't think I'll ever be invited back to Lakeland Regional after almost killing my roommate. Then it got really ugly after I got my walking papers and had to wait forever for a "lift" out of the joint. Ask Bobbi, she was there. Can you believe I had to take my own nurse?? OMG!! Chuck just kind of hid in the corner. I think I was scaring him. That's how I earned that special ring tone on her phone. DRAMA QUEEN! Yes, definitely don't follow my example.
 
Last edited:
Hey, I've heard that happy divers heal faster. :wink:


Hopefully it's going to be the ticket for you, too! It certainly cleared up all my issues. Wonder how many more of our friends have PFOs ... Hmmmmm ...

It's certainly nice knowing a great doctor!

I think it's a terrifying thought for the Good Doctor E. The thought of meeting and treating more of "us" will certainly send him to an early retirement or worse, the madhouse. But then.....if he can deal with me, he can probably deal with anybody.
 
Thanks for the compliment. PM me with what I owe you for that one. :)

Nah, all true. I still remember how I felt after the first cardiologist I went to seeking a TEE (3 months before the hit that landed me in the chamber) told me there was no point in even knowing whether I had a PFO unless I planned to stop diving if I did. :shakehead:

The fact that you have so many happy patients who are back in the water tells it like it is.
 
....Wonder how many more of our friends have PFOs ...

Besides the one we sent last week to Lakeland, we still have the most stubborn of ones that I'm 99% sure has PFO given the symptoms. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to have to take away her stethoscope away to get her to meet Debersole. Instead maybe I can setup a boat dive with them ???
 
I've referenced this thread in several other posts now and then but just realized I haven't been back to update this thread in many moons. It's now 3+ years and several hundred dives post-closure, and I haven't had a single symptom since. I also no longer experience migraines/migraines w/aura.

In hindsight, I was one lucky diver ... Lucky to have found the right doctor, and lucky to still be alive (and diving)!
 
Hi I had my PFO closure middle of 2010 with a percutaneous device. Full anaesthesia, 9 minutes surgery and thats all ! In April 2011 I had an echocardiogram that confirmed my PFO was closed successfully.

I realised about my PFO after being in the chamber twice. I used to work as divmaster so the first time I went to the chamber I thought it was just too much diving. Never did something unusual or wrong. But when this happened again I thought something more serious was happening.

I was in Thailand like a tourist ( I "retired" from divemaster) and it happened again ! One instructor told me about the hole in the heart. I didn't know about it. At all! After my 6 hours in the chamber plus 2 hours next day (and for second time in 2 years !) and after a month resting I came back to the water but very very scared. When I came back home I went to a diving dr who referred me to a cardiologist who discovered my hole in the heart. PFO closure done ! 1 year after or so I'm ready to go into diving again !

Hopefully next week I'll be in Philippines exploring the underwater world again. But I have to admit: I feel a bit nervous ... We will see ....

By the way, DAN is good ! Paid full chamber treatment twice.
 
  • Like
Reactions: D_B
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom